Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1887-05-12
THE CITY or GRAFT.
A Bit Of Croatian History Relieved BY
Description of a Pleasant Town.

Bit OF Croatian Hlstory Relieved by .
Description of \ Pleasant Town.
In leaving country so romantic as
Croatia and Slavonia, according to its
dual title, it may not be Improbable
to add few facts slightly dry and
statistical regarding its people and
their modes Of government, so little
known. 1t has an extensive area and
a great variety of soil and climate, ex-
tending as it does from the mouth of
the Danube to the Gulf of Fiume, and
thence north to Syria. For political
convenience it is divided into the prov
inces of Fiume, Kreutze, Warasdin,
Bellovar, etc. The Croats, branch
OF the Slav race, took possession of the
region in the seventh century. 1t was
fought over and belonged successfully
to the Hungarians and Venetians.
Later, when the Turks threatened
Vienna. it belonged to them, and after
they were expelled part of it fell to
Austria. Then Hungary again con-
quered the allegiance of the
Croats and maintained it till the
rebellion ESQ called) of 1848, when
Austria, to gain the assistance of
the people, promised them their
independence. A change of policy at
Vienna caused this pledge to be
broken, and they again formed them
selves under Magyar rule, though the
Croatian Parliament did not consent to
the arrangement till 1860. Since then
Croatia has been unwillingly an inte-
grail part of Hungary and a political
factor of the Austrian Empire The
Croats have in the joint Austro- Hunga-
rian Union minister without a port
folio. In the Hungarian Parliament
they are represented by thirty-four
members in the lower house and two in
the upper. Their own Diet is curiously
composed. 1t comprises the heads Of
the Roman Catholic and Greek Catho-
lie churches, the prior of Aurana
Counts, Barons and magnates, with
seventy-seven Deputies, chosen by the
people from town and country. Croa-
tia and Slavonia regulates its own af-
fairs so far as relates to education, ad-
ministration and religious worship.
The Croats are Catholics and the Serbs
mostly Greek as to religion. The first
use the Roman printed character; the
last employ what is called the Cyrillic
alphabet.
After leaving Croatia you cross the
Brave, a swift stream coming out of
the Tyrol, whose name is familiar to
every American school-boy. There is
little to attract attention till you reach
Gratz. This is a place that casts its
shadows before. Having nearly 1OO,-
600 inhabitants it is considered in Aus
tria great city. 1t is paradise OF
retired Austrian officers, who come
here to pass their declining years, and
if they are decent fellows are allowed
to remain after they die. Before you
get to Gratz you hear great deal
about it-there are so many people
going there to whom it is the grand
preoccupation of the moment Among
the passengers are some of the retired
officers looking sleek and contented,
and who excite establishment that their
whole pay being so small they can
maintain such an air of decent re-
spectability on half of it, With them,
perhaps, are their wives or daughters,
blonde women of refined air, some
times young, but oftener little passee,
also tastefully dressed, if not in the
height of fashion. Rents and every
thing pertaining to domestic life should
be cheap at Gratz to enable deoen:
poverty, the mode of existence in
which retired officers exist in all cour.
tries, to not only live in style not in
consistent with their rank, but to find
the place altogether to their taste
Cor. San Francisco Chronicle.